Mourners gathered Friday as the bodies of three sealers, who perished at sea last weekend, were carried into the town hall of Cap-Aux-Meules, a small community located in Iles-de-la-Madeleine, Que.

A fourth sealer is still missing and presumed dead after the victims' fishing vessel, the L'Acadien II, capsized during a rescue operation by the Canadian Coast Guard last Saturday off the coast of Cape Breton.

Thousands lined up to pay their respects Friday as the deaths marked a harsh reminder of the toll the sea has taken on the town.

The last major fishing accident in Cap-Aux-Meules was 18 years ago, when eight lives were lost when the Nadine sunk.

Eric Vigneau lost two of his brothers on that ship.

Despite the pain, he said he continues to earn a living on the sea.

"I've always done so, and I'm not going to stop now," he told CTV News.

One of Vigneau's late brothers left behind a widow. She remarried, only to see her new partner, Gilles Leblanc, perish this week on board the L'Acadien II.

Along with Leblanc, a hunter in his 50s, the other fishermen who died are:

• Bruno Bourque, the ship's captain
• Marc-Andre Deraspe, 20, an aspiring hockey player

Carl Aucoin has been identified as the missing hunter.

Two men were rescued from the ship.

Father Mario Doyle, who will lead a joint funeral for the three men on Saturday, also told CTV of his own history of sorrow.

He said the news of the men's deaths hit him like a punch to the head because when he was a young boy his own father perished at sea.

"I remember my own story and at this time I understand the feelings of members of the family," Doyle told CTV News. "The ocean gives us food, but sometimes it takes away our people."

Controversy continues

Meanwhile, two separate controversies have come out of the accident.

Many in the community are angry at the Canadian Coast Guard for ending its search for Aucoin after only 12 hours.

The search has since been resumed and will include Canadian divers looking for the L'Acadien II, which sunk after being capsized.

Also Friday, environmentalist Paul Watson of the Sea Sheppard Conservation Society continued to defend controversial comments he made after the men's deaths.

In a statement made shortly after the accident, Watson said sealers are "baby killers" and he said other sealers were "seeking sympathy because some of their own died."

He also said the seal hunt itself was a greater tragedy than that of the deaths of the four men.

He defended himself on Mike Duffy Live Friday, saying that there's not a contradiction in his previous statements.

In response to his comments, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May has resigned from Watson's advisory committee.

"Although I oppose the seal hunt, I don't have any dislike of individual sealers," she said on Mike Duffy Live. "Paul's comments were not in keeping with my feelings."

Watson said that he respected and understood May's decision.

On Friday, Watson's vessel, the Farley Mowat, was confronted at the wharf by two dozen residents of St-Pierre, the capital of the French territory south of Newfoundland.

Police said that local fishermen confronted the activists and the ship left after its lines were cut with axes.

Fisherman Carl Beaupertuis, 47, said he was furious over Watson's comments.

"We cut the ropes ... because the fishermen of St-Pierre don't accept what Paul Watson said,'' he said. "He's not allowed to come in the harbour any more. It's finished for him."

With a report from CTV's Jed Kahane and files from The Canadian Press